Car Buying Priorities First Price

A new report from the In-Vehicle UX (IVX) team at Strategy Analytics, has investigated consumer priorities when purchasing a new vehicle. Upfront price was ranked the most important factor in both the US and Western Europe, while Chinese respondents considered ride and handling most important. Safety and infotainment features rose in importance, as did autonomous features, particularly among younger age groups.

Strategy Analytics, has investigated consumer priorities when purchasing a new vehicle. Upfront price was ranked the most important factor in both the US and Western Europe, while Chinese respondents considered ride and handling most important

Key report findings include:

Upfront price, fuel efficiency, ride/handling, and workmanship/visual appeal are all included in the top five most important factors by respondents in the US, Western Europe and China.
The importance of upfront price and fuel efficiency fell across all regions while the importance of automated driving features increased across all regions.
Younger consumers and premium vehicle owners rated each factor much more evenly than other groups, placing the top factors on more equal footing with other vehicle features such as infotainment and HMI.

Chris Schreiner, Director, Syndicated Research UXIP and report author commented, “One of the key trends in this year’s research is the consistent de-emphasis on upfront price and fuel efficiency in the vehicle purchase decision. This could be a general trend but it is also likely that a strong global economy over the past few years combined with more fuel efficient vehicles has placed less importance on these factors.”

Continued Schreiner, “Nevertheless, upfront cost remains the most important feature in the US and Europe, and is even the most important factor for current US premium vehicle owners. However, a predicted downturn in the global economy brought about by trade wars between the US and China and Brexit’s impact may result in this trend reversing in 2019.”

Added Kevin Nolan, VP UXIP, “In China, given the vastly different demographics of new vehicle owners, vehicle purchase priorities are much different. In general, younger consumers are placing relatively more emphasis on vehicle features and UX than others. Given the average age of new car buyers, this is of considerable importance today for China, and will be a f